Tree seeks the equator!

[Firebird]

Cook Pines, named after Captain Cook, all point towads tbe equator no matter where on the planet they are planted!
Are they seeking the center? or does it have to do with the Coriolis effect?
Pretty unusual

http://www.cosam.calpoly.edu/news/slanted-cook-pines

[Shekinah]

They track the path of the sun that is also tracking across the equator. Plants also seek serene energy fields and bend away from such things as power lines and discordant human activity.

[Firebird]

This is a bit more than a plant just twisting around itself to track the sun. Or leaning away from high voltage...And this extreme leaning only occurs in this particular tree, aruacaria columnaris. 8 degrees if on the same parallel in the North or Southern Hemisphere and the further away from the equator the greater the degree of lean.

The cause of directional lean in this species is unclear. Vertical growth in shoots is generally maintained by a negative relationship with gravity (negative gravitropism; Hashiguchi et al. 2013) and a relationship with their light source (positive phototropism; Darwin and Darwin 1880, Loehle 1986, Christie and Murphy 2013). Non-vertical shoot growth can be caused by mechanical perturbation from wind or snow or by a phototropic response to a light source that is not directly above the shoot (Tomlinson 1983, Telewski 2006). Mechanistic studies in Arabidopsis thaliana have identified several gene families whose regulation effects phototropic and gravitropic growth in plants. However, the mechanisms controlling the expression of these genes and the interactions between them are not well understood, especially for woody species (Wyatt and Kiss 2013).

Source: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1 ... .1850/full
There is a couple of very cool charts that comes up on the full report, they weren't showing when I posted the link, not sure why but I clicked where the squares were after the quotes and the chart opens in a different page.
Not sure what one does with this info, but plants fascinate me.
This was first published in May of this year, though most of the reports are from June, it's relatively new news!
Bb,
Treebird